Bee Finished

Andrew Coulson has some more details about Scripps Spelling Bee winner Evan O'Dorney and the public school-connected program through which he receives home-based instruction. I think the whole thing is pretty interesting, as is the growth of home-based charter and, in this case, public schools that appeal to parents who want to educate their children themselves but need or simply appreciate the additional (publicly-funded) support and resources these programs offer them. It just goes to show that the lines between different types of education are blurring, and, to the extent that means more choices for parents and kids, greater equity for parents who want non-traditional options, greater accountability to both parents and the public, and good outcomes for kids, I think it's terrific.

But one thing Coulson says really bothers me:

Though Evan O’Dorney is registered through a public school, a great many homeschoolers are not. And yet, somehow, they manage to get by pretty well. Why, it’s almost as if this “public accountability” thing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be!

That's pure speculation on his part. Neither he nor anyone else knows anything about how these kids, on the whole, are doing, because there's no uniform information available on them, no data on their performance, and in some places no one even knows who these kids are. Many homeschooling parents are doing laudable work in an incredibly difficult job. I've known several of them. But, in rare cases, homeschooling can also provide a hiding place for abusive and neglectful parents, with tragic results. That doesn't mean anyone can or should take away parents' right to homeschool, but it does mean we all have an interest in minimal oversight and basic, transparent information about how these kids are doing--and it's not just because of the public interest, but also for good homeschool parents themselves, who deserve not to be tarred by bad people who pretend to be homeschoolers, and who could use the results of transparent public information to make the case for what they're doing. That's what public accountability means: Knowing how kids are doing. And knowing is a good thing.

Oh, and one more thing: Since the Cato folks and I go back and forth a lot, and since they asked nicely, I've added them to our blog roll. And as an added bonus, the link will take you to a blog of only their education and child-related posts, so you won't have to wade through 9 bazillion Daniel J. Mitchell posts on how the flat tax--and not the fact that they're recovering from Communism--is responsible for the rapid growth of Eastern European economies. Groovy!